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Just how the government can mine social network data for where you have been and where you will go can be seen in a video by defense contractor Raytheon that was obtained by The Guardian.

An example of a social network diagram. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The intended use of RIOT (Rapid Information Overlay Technology) can be gleaned at about the three-minute mark in the video, which demonstrates the software's capabilities by tracking a Raytheon employee named Nick. A researcher notes that RIOT has determined that Mondays at 6 a.m. is the time that the employee most often visits the gym: "So if you ever did want to get a hold of Nick, or maybe get a hold of his laptop, you might want to visit the gym at 6 a.m. on Monday."

The video shows RIOT using a browser-based search interface to track the Raytheon employee across Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Gowalla (which was acquired by Facebook last year). The search results come up with the locations that Nick has checked in with his smartphone as well as photos that he has taken, and then uses the coordinates embedded in the photos to display locations on Google Earth. RIOT creates pie charts of the most common locations Nick travels to, enabling analysts to predict his movements. RIOT also does social network analysis, displaying names and even phone numbers of those social media users that Nick connects to. There is no mention of violence in the video. Yet it's worth noting that software that assembles a profile of someone's movements would also be useful for government agencies who arrange for appointments between suspected terrorists and drone-launched Hellfire missiles.

Raytheon shared the technology with the U.S. government and private industry in 2010 as part of an effort to "help build a national security system capable of analyzing "trillions of entities" from cyberspace," according to the Guardian. This will light a fire under civil liberties groups. Yet what's interesting is that while the software seems broad in its reach across popular social networks, it doesn't seem all that sophisticated. Intrusive, perhaps., but really just a big butterfly net to catch large quantities of social network data that may or may not be valuable. For example, social network analysis is great for catching insurgents planting IEDs. Yet considering how many people the average social media user is connected to, it is also a great way to ensnare a lot of innocent people who share nothing more than a love of cat photos in a government investigation. And in terms of predictive analysis, a pie chart of where someone goes most frequently, or who they tweet to, is simple data crunching that a human analyst could do, albeit with more time and effort. What would really be useful is mathematical modeling that can predict new places that an individual will visit.

Still, this kind of tool could yield results as terrorist groups like Al Qaeda turn to social media. Of course, it could also easily be used to assemble profiles of Americans. On the other hand, the results are only as good as the data. Someone who doesn't use social media can duck RIOT. One also wonders if a savvy terrorist - or a particularly privacy-conscious American - could spoof the system. Post photos of places you never intend to visit?